Dr Helen Pankhurst: David Cameron should reverse cuts to childcare support for low-income families

With so few women MPs representing us, we must make sure David Cameron and
other political leaders create policies that are not biased against half the
population, says Dr Helen Pankhurst. The great granddaughter of
Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst says childcare costs are a key issue
on the eve of a women's rights march in London.

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David Cameron should reverse the cuts to childcare support for low-income families, Dr Helen Pankhurst says.Photo: ALAMY

On Wednesday my daughter and I will join hundreds of people at UK Feminista's lobby of Parliament to call for urgent action to tackle the ongoing inequalities between women and men. Those attending will come from right across the country, from different party persuasions, representing different organisations or representing themselves, but all united by one goal.

By meeting with our MPs and lobbying them to take action, we'll be sending a powerful message that the recent attacks on women's rights have got to stop. It's time for a step-change in how seriously parliament tackles sexism in the UK. Feminism should be at the heart of British politics.

The lobby chamber we'll enter in the Houses of Parliament is literally well-trodden ground in my family. As suffragette leaders my grandmother, Sylvia Pankhurst, and great grandmother, Emmeline Pankhurst, were familiar faces around Westminster.

Their sacrifices and achievements may now be consigned to the history books, but the struggle for justice for women continues. Today, progress on women's equality hasn't just stalled, in some areas it's actually going backwards.

Cuts to public sector jobs, services and welfare benefits are disproportionately affecting women, undermining their economic independence and threatening to turn back the clock on hard fought gains.

These new threats to women's hard-won rights threaten to entrench ongoing inequalities yet further. Some 84 years after the struggle for women's suffrage finally succeeded and female MPs today are outnumbered four to one in parliament, violence against women is endemic and women form the majority of those in low paid, low status jobs.

Yet all too often these issues are sidelined in parliament, not seen as the main business of politics.

But on Wednesday feminist voices will reverberate around the Palace of Westminster and put the fight for women's equality back where it belongs.

Emmeline Pankhurst being restrained by policemen

Armed with a wealth of research and copious national and international obligations on the Government, we'll call on MPs to:

– Ensure every school plays its part in preventing violence against women and girls by ensuring it is tackled throughout the curriculum and in all school policies.

– Help end the stereotyping and sexual objectification of women in the media by supporting recommendations to the Leveson Inquiry ensuring the press does not discriminate against women.

– Ensure justice for women seeking asylum by challenging the culture of disbelief in relation to women’s asylum claims

– Support an abortion law for the 21st century by extending abortion rights to Northern Ireland, fully decriminalising abortion across the UK and ending the harassment outside abortion clinics.

These are all crucial actions that MPs can and must take in this parliamentary term. Women's lives are on the line.

So whether you're a seasoned campaigner or have never met a politician in your life, join us at the Feminist Lobby of Parliament. As my grandmother and great-grandmother knew all too well, change doesn't just happen. If we want a world where women and men live as equals – it's up to us to make it happen.